Timur ibn Taraghai Barlas [April 9, 1336 - February 18, 1405] was a Turco-Mongol conqueror who, following the footsteps of Genghis Khan, founded the Timurid Empire, encompassing Persia and much of central Asia in the 14th Century, extending from India to the Mediterranean Sea. Through his military campaigns, consisting of armies of men numbering in the hundreds of thousands, he succeeded in defeating many of the major eastern powers of his time period, including the Ottoman Empire. He ultimately conquered land that comprises the modern day countries of Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, northern India, and large regions of Syria and Turkey, among others. 
     Timur was born near the modern city of Shahrisabz, Uzbekistan to a father who was a noble of the Barlas, a Mongolian tribe. At some point during his adolescence or early adulthood Timur sustained major injuries to his right leg and hand. Legend maintains that these injuries occured when Timur was shot by arrows by a shephard after attempting to steal sheep. Some historians think it is more likely he sustained the wounds in battle while serving as a mercenary under a local khan. However it happened, this incident left Timur crippled for the remainder of his life. Later on, after he came to power in Persia, Timur gained the nickname Timur Lenk, Turkish for "Timur the Lame". Over time this became corrupted in English as "Tamerlane". 
     Considered a military mastermind among his contemporaries, his tactics on the battlefield were notoriously clever as well as ruthless. During his campaign against northern India, the Sultan of Delhi employed war elephants in an attempt to intimidate Timur's army. In response, Timur set fire to the backs of several of his own camel, sending them ablaze towards enemy lines. Delhi's elephants panicked, stampeding their own troops. Timur used this opportunity to charge and defeat the Indian army, after which he massacred the population of Delhi. Some scholars estimate that the total of his campaigns caused the death of over 17 million people. This was approximately five percent of the world's population at the time.    
     Despite his reputation for being a ruthless and cruel barbarian, Tamerlane was also well known for his political acumen, and he was able to maintain wide loyalty throughout the nomads of Central Asia. Contrary to the brutish stereotypes of Turco-Mongol conquerors, Tamerlane was well learned and enjoyed the company of scholars, often sparing their lives after conquests, and inviting the physicians and intellects of a conquered city into his personal chambers. He was a lover of the arts, and of contemporary architecture. He also was fond of intellectual pursuits, one of them being the game of chess. 
       According to Tamerlane's biographer, Ahmed ibn Arabshah [d. 1450], he spent much of his leisure time at his court playing chess, preferring specifically the game known as "Great Chess" [Shatranj al-kabir] or "Perfect Chess" [Shatranj Kamil]. It was of course to be expected that such a great mind as that of Tamerlane the Conqueror would not be content at mastering only Shatranj ash-shaghir, or the ordinary "small" chess. As Ibn Arabshah put it in his manuscript Timur the Great Amir: "he [Timur] was constant in the game of chess, that with it he might sharpen his intellect; but his mind was too lofty to play at the lesser game of chess and therefore he played only the greater game".  Due to Tamerlane's passion for the game of Great Chess, it later became known by historians as Tamerlane Chess.